Nokia scotches Cisco take-over rumours

9 Aug 2005

Nokia has rubbished rumours that it is in talks to be acquired by Silicon Valley networking giant Cisco.

A virtual rumour mill on the web went into overdrive yesterday following revelations in a UK Sunday paper, The Business, that Cisco CEO John Chambers is interested in merging his company with a wireless infrastructure company. Nokia was identified as the most likely target.

Cisco, which is the world’s largest maker of internet equipment, is worth US$123bn, whilst Nokia has a market value of around US$71bn.

For the past few years Cisco has been an acquisitive company, focusing on niche technology players. However, Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila’s announcement last week that in a year’s time he will step down from Nokia to take on the role of chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, added fuel to the fire of speculation sparked by the story on Sunday. In London Nokia shares rose by 3pc in Monday morning trading alone.

However, news agency Reuters has reported a Nokia spokesperson describing the newspaper story as “pure fabrication based on rumours on the internet”.